“Fun Days is done”

NORTH LIBERTY– After 35 years, the fun is over for North Liberty Fun Days.
Event committee chair Randy Mosier said Monday the four-day community celebration has been canceled.
“Fun Days is done,” Mosier said. “It wasn’t a decision we made lightly.”
This year’s planning committee came up against several difficulties, but ultimately, the group bottomed out at the weakened bottom line.
“It was a financial decision. It takes a lot of money to run a four-day event. We were already down quite a ways, and we were no longer accomplishing what Fun Days was originally meant to do,” Mosier explained.
Traditionally held the second weekend in June, Fun Days was initiated so many years ago with the purpose of giving local nonprofit groups an opportunity to hold fundraisers– such as the Optimists offering their food trailer– and making enough of a profit from the event itself to donate back to community service organizations. In 2008, the area’s severe flooding caused the cancellation of the entire event, and rainy weather has plagued Fun Days every year since, curbing attendance and cumulatively crippling profits.
“We couldn’t pay the bills and still turn around and give money back to the community,” said Mosier, “and that’s really what it was intended to do. There was a very deep concern for not being able to make ends meet.”
Of the traditional Fun Days activities–car show, tractor pull, carnival, numerous contests, water ball competitions, live music and weekend dances– only the City Wide Garage Sales and the Friday night parade will take place.
Garage sales can still be listed with Norma Drexler by calling 319-626-6803 or emailing 3lildoxies@gmail.com. A list of registered garage sales will be available Friday at local merchant locales.
To honor the late Mayor Tom Salm, who passed away May 18, the City of North Liberty has stepped in to host the Fun Days parade, still scheduled for Friday, June 13, on the same route it has been in the past, beginning at 7 p.m. There is no registration or fee required to be in the parade. Participants can line up at the North Liberty Community Center beginning at 6 p.m. After the parade, city equipment will be displayed in Penn Meadows Park, and the North Liberty Optimist Club will have food available for purchase.
“We want to make sure everybody knows how much we have appreciated everyone who attended and participated in the past,” Mosier said. “It’s kind of like losing an old friend. But I guess there comes a time when everything has to come to an end.”